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Monday, 7 January 2013

Starting As I Mean To Go On...

So I have two manicures to share today. The first is one I had on for a couple of days but the pink I used (Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear in Twisted Pink) was a bit of a nuisance (a bit too thick and gloopy) so it ended up looking a bit rubbish quite quickly. But here's how it started out looking (apologies for photo quality, it was late at night and so light was limited)...

This was completely inspired by the same post as before on Love Maegen.

This second one came about after finding this awesome page on Buzzfeed with 12 different nail art designs using Scotch tape. I reverted to purple and silver, as before, because I just can't get enough of the silver. It's a different purple this time - another Sally Hansen Hard as Nails one (in Deep Purple) which I got when I was in California in October (if only we had Target in the UK - I swear I do most of my shopping there when I'm in the US). Anyway, this purple like the pink one above was a bit heavy and so I smudged a good couple of nails and had to repaint before I had a perfect set of nails. Frustrating. That said, the purple it came out with was pretty lovely - dark but bright (oxymoron?) with a little shimmer to it, but just so shiny - even without a top coat.

Two coats of Deep Purple, without top coat.

Once I'd got that done, I waited for a good hour or two so that the polish was totally dry, then it was time for the Scotch tape and silver! I used Barry M Instant Effects silver foil (np319) (I actually have all three of these colours - and at £3.99 each they are a complete steal. I may have to buy a few more in case they stop making them!)

To put my design on, I cut a rectangle of Scotch tape, which I then cut diagonally to make two triangles, and then one of those I cut down the middle of the straight edge to make two more triangles - so I had three pieces in total, which I positioned and then painted over with the silver as below:

I did two coats of the silver and then waited again before removing the Scotch tape as I didn't want it to mess up the design. Finally I let myself take them off to see what it looked like and put a coat of Butter London P.D. Quick (I'll do a Butter London post soon - it's one of my new obsessions) over the top... and now for the big reveal...

For a first attempt at this sort of technique, I'm pretty pleased and think it came out quite well! Now I just have to finish my right hand... and then hope that it doesn't all chip off before I go back to work on Wednesday!

Have you tried Scotch taping nail art before? How did it work for you?